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Week 4 Reflection
Introduction
This week I got the chance to maiden the Turbo Timber. Along with that, I also got to see how my homemade skis worked in the snow.
Ski Performance
The airplane was very resistant to moving at first, there was a lot of friction between the skis and the snow even with smooth tape applied to the underside. The tail also sat super low in the snow and dug in unless I held the tail up. My method for taxiing was as follows: Set flaps to half, throttle up and apply down elevator to get the tail up and hold it there, increase throttle until the aircraft started to taxi. The aircraft had a severe tendency to yaw left on the ground, most likely due to the p-factor caused by the high prop speed required to taxi. Full right rudder was not enough at certain points to keep the aircraft traveling straight, and each takeoff felt more like an accident waiting to happen rather than smooth and controlled.
Flight Characteristics
The aircraft flew more sluggishly than I had expected. That could have been due to the 1.6m wingspan, a full 0.4m wider than the largest airplane I had flown before. The skis could have negatively affected the flight characteristics as well, but considering they were lighter and more streamlined than the bush wheels that would normally be equipped, I don’t believe that would be the case. The aircraft was tail heavy and yet wanted to nose over upon takeoff and landing which was strange.
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